‘Orange Is The New Black’ is four seasons deep, so far. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

After watching Season 4 of “Orange Is the New Black,” the news that the show was renewed through seven seasons is daunting.

The fourth is its heaviest season yet, but it is also its most packed. There is too much going on. With a million different storylines, there is no real central plot line and it gets overwhelming.

Between the prison administration changes, the overcrowding with the influx of new inmates (including a cooking show star who is treated like royalty, à la Martha Stewart), and the traditional flashbacks, it can be tough to keep up with what is going on if you’re not paying close attention.

By the end, you forget the whole season started with Alex killing a guard and burying him in the prison yard garden. The guards themselves are fiercer now and the prison life is definitely more realistic, to the point that it can get uncomfortable, which is a good thing for the show.

But Piper’s character is what has come to feel unrealistic. I’m not a huge fan of who Piper has become. Her transition into hardened prisoner feels fake — when she says “I’m gangster” (with the r), I’m embarrassed for her. It feels fake because I think after she’s released she’ll go back to who she was when she was with Jason Biggs. Piper might have some edge on the outside, but the gangster persona is not who she is.

And speaking of uncomfortable, what the hell was that scene where Lorna and her new husband have verbal sex in the visiting room? That’s the most uncomfortable moment in a season where an inmate has to eat a live mouse and Piper gets a swastika seared into her arm. It gets pretty real.

However, the first season is still the best and at the rate the show is going, it will need all seven seasons to play out the drama it has introduced. The flashbacks are also different here in that they don’t show why the subjects ended up at Litchfield. Rather, they help explain an aspect of each person’s general character, which I don’t care about as much. And if you didn’t feel bad for Mr. Healy before, you will after you see him once mistake a homeless woman for his long-lost psychotic mom, only to have the woman decline his sad pleas to still have dinner with him after he realizes she’s not his mom. It’s heartbreaking.

I’ve always thought the most impressive character is Taryn Manning as Pennsatucky and she was especially strong in this season. Pennsatucky is similar to Manning’s characters in Crossroads and 8 Mile, but she is able to play this one with more depth and that works in her favor. Forgiving the guard who raped her is a poignant moment in this season.

The show certainly still has entertainment value, but I find myself not really caring whether or not Daya pulls the trigger on the guards. I’ll watch Season 5 and maybe 6, but I feel like I’ll lose steam on this show before Season 7.

Blog Author:

Lucy Burdge

Tue, 07/12/2016 - 1:29pm — Anonymous

Glenn, Lou, and Christian discuss some new damning evidence about Joe Paterno's role and knowledge in regards to the Jerry Sandusky case

[0:04:57] ... agree at a jewelry area to wake coached Italy and children and ReggieBush listen to residents are privately Joseph pretty well. I don't know what was going on I was afraid it was it. Should ... [0:08:29] ... the program that's being punished and it's the same thing. If you're ReggieBush and you're taking cash from from agents or through and these other players and any other teams they're taken money. The university ... [0:16:15] ... mound I was also watching. Stunning to catch enough Sunday morning on RudyGiuliani had a great point. There are hundreds and hundreds of shooting. In Chile Gary that country are perpetuated viral people. But then ...

Tue, 07/12/2016 - 1:28pm — Anonymous

The guys talk about some stupid social media behavior from NFL player Isiah Crowell and NFL wife Miko Grimes

Tue, 07/12/2016 - 1:26pm — Anonymous

The OMFers discuss the latest Celtics rumor about Blake Griffin possibly coming to the C's. Will there be fireworks?

Tue, 07/12/2016 - 1:24pm — Anonymous

Glenn, Lou, and Christian begin the show talking about the record setting home run derby, only to have the show hijacked by Fauria and his love of The Bachelorette.

This is a sad day, indeed. It’s with a heavy heart that I report one of my chief blogging crushes, the irrepressible Miko Grimes, has gone dark.

If you’re not familiar, the lovely and talented Miko is the wife of former Dolphins and current Buccaneers cornerback Brent Grimes is a force of nature. She’s fought with stadium security, ripped the Miami media on Twitter and bragged about the sexy time stuff she does with her husband to the point the Dolphins finally released him. And in one of the great moments of her social media career, Monday she went on a profane and anti-Semitic attack on Miami’s ownership with a gem that went “The Dolphins f–king stink! They will never be great as long as Stephen Ross is the owner, Tannenbaum is the G.M., and Tannehill is the QB!” Followed by “Gotta respect Ross for keeping his Jew buddies employed but did he not see how Tannenbaum put the Jets in the dumpster w/that Sanchez deal?”

And now, tragically, the ride is over. As of Tuesday afternoon, Miko’s Twitter account is protected. Miko was a blogger’s dream. A fabulous disaster with no regard for her husband’s career, utterly lacking a filter and completely unaware of anything other than how right she is and how she can bring attention to herself. She’s like the living embodiment of the fake people you see on reality shows. The kind who’ll start a fight with you at a fancy party, throw wine in your face and pull your hair extensions out.

Now, according to Pro Football Talk, she’s blaming the media for her blatantly Jew-hating rant and telling a Bucs fan site “The media is the problem. They make things stories so they get clicks. They are the ones that want the fame. They wanna be famous for writing the story that got the most clicks even if it’s not really a story at all.”

That’s not the Miko Grimes I’ve come to know and love. My Miko would’ve owned the “Jew buddies” comment and doubled down on it until she cost her husband another job. But now she’s playing the oldest, lamest game in the book. And going off the grid. I guess we fans of hers can only wait until she resurfaces. And in the meantime, entertain ourselves with the legendary birthday cake she made for him that is completely NSFW, depending on your employer’s policy on graphic frosting sex.

Good night, sweet princess. You’ll be missed.

Blog Author:

Jerry Thornton

Tue, 07/12/2016 - 11:44am — Anonymous

(NSFW, language)

There are few things in life better than a great tirade. Whether you’re delivering it or merely witnessing it, a good, deranged rant can be like a juice cleanse for the soul. And this Uber driver’s tirade is one of the best you’ll ever see.

The problem is, my man here forgot the first rule of tirades. You have to keep the upper hand. It’s all about hand. He had the complete moral high ground. This self-absorbed princess in the back has no right to claim squatter’s rights in the back of his vehicle. But even though she’s in the wrong, she kept her argumentative phaser set to “Passive Aggressive.” And once he set his to “Kill,” he lost the battle. It’s all about style points when the cell phone video is rolling.

I still have no idea why she simply didn’t get out of the car or what that “You need to tell me what my destination” crap was all about. But what he needed to do was just keep repeating the same nonsense phrase over and over again like she was, wait her out and win the war of attrition. It’s a pity too, because I’ll take this guy on my side in a fight any day of the week and twice on Sunday. You live and learn in the world of Uber driving, I guess.

In one of those goofy little slow-season clickbait articles, ESPN’s NFL Insiders just did a ranking of the future of all 32 teams in the league. “Future” being defined in NFL terms, meaning the next three years. It consisted of Field Yates, Louis Riddick, and Mike Sando scoring every franchise on its roster, coaching staff, quarterback, draft, and front office on a scale of zero to 100.

Surprising to the point of stunned, slack-jawed, I-can’t-believe-Han-Solo-is-dead-level shock, is that they have the Patriots ranked number two on the list, mere decimal points (88.5 t0 88.3) behind Seattle. No other team rated higher than 85.0.

In other words, ESPN, the organization that has dedicated its existence over the last decade and a half to ripping the Patriots as a potent, foul cocktail of corruption, arrogance, dishonesty and incompetent talent evaluation has them as likely to keep the dynasty going into its 19th season, at least.

It seriously has to be poison in the mouths of the unindicted co-conspirators down in Bristol to have to admit that. Particularly given that the quarterback they’ve put so much time and effort into defaming will be soon be turning an age in which most QBs are taken out back behind the barn and put out of their misery.

But it gets worse. The highest ranking in any of the five categories they used – by far – went to the focus of evil in the World Wide Leader universe: Bill Belichick, who gets an overall ranking of 99.7. Now, I’m too pretty to do math, but if my calculations are correct, that means two of the graders have him a perfect 100 and the other gave him a 99.

Writes Field Yates, “When his coaching career is over, Bill Belichick may well have established himself as the best ever to do it in the NFL. He’s a brilliant strategist, a great hands-on teacher and a master of in-game adjustments. Now 64 years old, he’s among the oldest NFL coaches, but there’s no sign of Belichick slowing down anytime soon. His passion is unquestioned.”

I can’t imagine anything more painful for ESPN to say. The guy they detest as sullen, ego maniacal and a conniving cheater gets an almost perfect score from their own experts. How many times have we heard the “game has passed Belichick by”? Or been told football is evolving under some new trendy flavor of the month like Chip Kelly or some random Harbaugh brother? Or had to listen to “They’re not good any more”?

Now they’re conceding that the future belongs to Bill Belichick and his Patriots. It has to feel like the Rebel Alliance official Facebook page admitting that Darth Vader runs a hell of an empire. And it is magnificent. File this one away for the next time someone says they hate the Patriots, Brady and Belichick or the dynasty is over. Because the future is yours.

Unsealed court documents from the Jerry Sandusky trial describe what a 14-year old boy allegedly told Joe Paterno in 1976 about the convicted child molester.

[0:01:25] ... 1976. Missiles according to a 2014. Testimony made public this morning innate Philadelphia, Pennsylvania court. But then fourteen year old victim poll paternal that the assistant coach Jerry sandusky. Who was convicted in 2012 or molesting ... [0:03:53] ... O'Brien. You save the frequently then helped. None any liability statute that SaddamHussein statute is X Jerri H that Joe's got six to mean I mean what a point or point oh solutions that. But Warner. Let's go rapidfire we forget that arms I would for its money more would again our rapidfire John in Providence go. Yeah you guys feel good job so. I wondered where the people that are currently in the Bronx ... [0:05:10] ... we can prolong things how confusing to benefit the next few the next. Generation not try to get meaning and you know this this kind of thing that we we got going on where you know ... [0:07:14] ... this video little kid flipping the cops. Let them talk about it. Rapidfire lit like. More good morning to protect and call us. I just wanted to comment and say that I feel like this ...